Not very festive notices of funding and consultation deadlines happening soon!

by | Dec 20, 2019 | Members News, National, PPN News | 0 comments

Every year just as community groups finish up for their Christmas break their email inboxes suddenly start filling up with vital short notice funding opportunities and really important consultations that have deadlines that could easily be missed if people are off on holidays. Well this year is no different – we apologise for clogging your inbox with non festive news, but we don’t want our groups to miss out. Please click below for some important notices with deadlines in December 2019 and January 2020.  Wishing you all the happiest of Christmas seasons.

Clare PPN Notices for members December 2019

Clare PPN report from the Briefing on the Urban and Rural Regeneration Funds Wed, 5th September 2018

by | Sep 6, 2018 | National, PPN News | 0 comments

Report on briefing session on the Urban and Rural Regeneration Funds September 2018

Clare PPN Staff member Sarah Ferrigan attended a workshop last Wednesday 5th September aimed at organisations who intend to apply for funding under either the Urban or Rural Regeneration Funds.  Read her report below and see also the attached PDFS which were provided at the session.

Background: The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) together with Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) held a joint regional briefing in respect of both the Urban and Rural Regeneration Funds that were launched in July as part of Project Ireland 2040.  The briefing was intended to assist and inform bodies that may be considering making a bid for funding to either or both Funds, particularly now as bids are being formulated and questions arise.

Provision is made in the National Development Plan (NDP) for €2bn to 2027 for the urban fund and €1bn to 2027 for the rural fund, to support implementation of the National Planning Framework (NPF).

PDFs from the briefing:

Project Ireland 2040 and the URDF

Urban Regeneration & Development Funds 2018

Sarah’s report:

Report on Southern Regional Assembly Meeting, 5 September, Silver Springs Cork.

4 billion over 10 years for transformational projects

  • Urban Regional Development Fund (URDF) – 2 billion
  • Rural Regional Development Fund (RRDF) – 1 billion
  • Climate action fund – €500k
  • Disruptive Technologies fund – €500k

Category 1 – No minimum bid, shovel ready for 2019, consents & planning in place. Collaboration with bodies/organisations used to government funding as reporting and auditing requirement onerous.

Category 2 – €500,000 minimum bid, pipeline projects or project development with clear potential possibly leading to Category 1 bid in following year.

Urban Regional Development Fund (URDF)

  • Urban centres with population greater than 10,000
  • Towns with population between 2,500 and 10,000
  • administered by Department of Housing, Planning & Local Government
  • 2 billion to 2027
  • Supports National Planning Framework (NPF) and National Development Plan (NDP)
  • Ideally local authority led but with partners (community/private sectors)
  • Planning must be in place or in progress by the end of January 2019
  • Category 1 and 2 can be clustered to get to 10m.
  • 75% funding with matched of 25%

Rural Regional Development Fund (RRDF)

  • Rural town with population less than 2,500
  • Towns with population between 2,500 and 10,000
  • Administered by Department of Community & Rural Development
  • 1 billion to 2027 (initial €315 million 2019-2022)
  • Supports National Planning Framework (NPF)
  • Encourages collaboration ( with regard to capacity of partners)
  • Has a social and economic impact
  • Planning permission must be in place at time of contract
  • Towns can cluster projects into one application
  • Avoid duplication but can develop an existing project only if it could not have been done in another way
  • Land valuation can be used as matched funding
  • Up to 80% funding with at least 20% matched

*NOTE: A decision has yet to be made as to whether LEADER funding can be used as matched funding

Timeline:

Closing dates:

  • RRDF 27th September
  • URDF 28th September

Followed by approvals in November and project commencement in January 2019.  Next call in mid – 2019

Q&A

High degree of competition locally? Organisations should work together to make a submission for their town and utilise each other’s expertise

Are closing dates flexible? This is a multi-year programme.   If you miss this round get ready for the next one.  They do not want to reallocate money from a project whose application was rushed and therefore unsustainable

Organisations often have no control over delays in planning/CPO’s/legal matters.  What happens if it drags on? As above it is a multi-year programme however if progress is being made by January 2019 it will be assessed.

Can applications be made for area based programmes within a city? Yes as long as it is a project that would not have occurred otherwise and must be concentrated in an area of the city that needs it the most.

What about housing? Can some projects be mixed use to include social housing? The fund is not for housing but to provide the infrastructure and amenities to be ready for new housing.

Can it be used to join up greenways? The greenway fund is separate and geographical areas need to come together to decide the viability of joining up greenways.

If an organisation has unspent money from funds awarded in 2017 can it be utilised as matched funding? It depends on who awarded the funding, what its purpose was and if you have permission.

Can land acquisition be part of expenditure? Yes

RRDF guidelines say that the project should be replicable? Great if easily replicable but not the be all and end all

Are funds already spent on a project allowed as expenditure in application? No, sunk cost are not allowed in application.

Brief report from Creative Ireland Clare Focus Group meeting January 16th 2018

by | Jan 19, 2018 | Current, Members News, PPN News, SPC for Social Development | 0 comments

Creative Ireland Clare – Focus Group, January 16th 2018  Lead by Deirdre Enright

I was invited to attend the above focus group as a representative of Clare PPN last week. We received short notice of the invitation and so I asked on social media if there was anything in particular that people wanted raised at the focus group-  here’s how I got on and what I learned-

The first thing to say was that this focus group was about how Creative Ireland Clare might achieve its aims in 2018. Creative Ireland is a national initiative which was started as a result of the perceived success of the 1916 100 anniversary commemorations around the country- as I remember the idea behind it was to try and capture the energy and enthusiasm for events at local level organised by communities and local authorities into something lasting which could build on culture and community for everyone’s benefit.  More on Creative Ireland here https://creative.ireland.ie/en

Part of Creative Ireland’s plan involved setting up Creative Ireland Teams in all local authority areas which include Arts office staff, Library Staff, Heritage Staff, Rural and Social Development Staff and others.  Last year’s Creative Ireland Clare Plan is here  https://creative.ireland.ie/en/local-plans/clare

The purpose of this focus group seemed to be to examine how Clare County Council’s Creative Ireland Team and in particular the Arts Office could best use the funds available to help make the arts thrive in Clare. The total funding per county for Creative Ireland is €94,000 this year. This does not include local government funding for the arts or arts council funding etc it is just a Creative Ireland fund. Creative Ireland has also got an ambitious plan to enhance arts and cultural participation in schools but that is funded separately to the general Local Authority Fund.

The discussions were on the need for arts infrastructure, for artists to be supported with places to make large works, for the money to go directly to artists, for the money to be used to help provide professional arts staff who might be able to support artists/festivals in getting work done and made.

Because it was a focus group rather than a strategy session things were more brainstormed than decided upon but in an attempt to sum up the main themes of the discussion or the main points of agreement-

Clare could do with a creative hub or space where people could make work and network –an arts place.

The arts and cultural scene in Clare has a severe lack of human infrastructure-  staff paid in sustainable positions to promote and develop the arts in Clare – and to help artists and festivals with the business of keeping themselves working- funding, grant applications, promotions, work spaces etc.  The Arts Office has only one full time staff member and so growing the arts and being available and accessible to people county wide is a huge ask at this level of staffing.

The arts office could also do with its own dedicated website separate from Clare County Council’s main page. This would help it communicate, promote arts events and be more accessible to people in the county.

Clare needs to ensure that artists can where possible earn sustainable livelihoods in Clare and that those who are from the county and leave for university or to go further afield are included in the artistic life of the county where possible –so attention should be paid to artists living and working in Clare and to the internal and international diaspora many of whom are engaged in the arts.

A suggestion was also made to investigate the possibilities of corporate supports such as businesses that might want an artist in residence etc as a way of putting arts at the core of life in Clare.

The focus group concluded with that with the next step being for Deirdre Enright the consultant to collate the findings from all the sectoral focus groups they conducted and to help draft a creative Ireland programme for 2018 from it.

This is not the County Arts Development Plan 2018 – although some issues raised at the focus groups may be reflected in that plan. Apparently there will be consultation on that in the near future- I will keep you posted if I hear anything about that.